Saturday, March 22, 2014

It's taken me some time to come up with an idea for the Tangled Textiles challenge theme "Artistic License". From the time it was announced by Judy, several events have intervened and now I'm late. I've been away (more about that in another post). Oh well, best get on with it.

I had attended another session at Asilomar this year and took a class with Sue Benner. Her class was a study in rectilinear, curvilinear, and cut and collage design. It was while working on my rectilinear design that my idea came to me for Artistic License. My rectilinear piece had blocks that looked like they were tumbling.

The way my mind works, one thing lead to another and before I knew it, other block settings were brought to mind, in particular Tumbling Blocks. I viewed many settings of this particular quilt block and even noticed that the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky has a contest entitled "New Quilts From An Old Favorite". Tumbling Block had been chosen for the 2002 contest.

Artistic License gives me the freedom to take something, change it, and still have it be recognizable. How to portray Tumbling Blocks differently and still make sense. At the same time use what I learned in Sue Benner's class and change it.

First I made a staircase using rail fence blocks with this fabric.

Next I chose a variety of fabrics like jacquard, gold lame and fabric I had painted. I cut these into squares and frames, fused them together

and fused them onto the background.

Although I had placed some of the blocks to appear as though they were tipping off of the edge of the stairs, it still needed something more. Quilting would do the trick and perhaps a few smaller squares to look as though they were tumbling out of their "parent".

So after some initial tweeking (read that as reverse stitching) here is the resulting piece.

Taking artistic license a bit further, I've called it Blocks Tumbling...go figure... Oh well for what it's worth, there it is. Go on over to Tangled Textiles blog and see what the others did.

About Me

I live in Vernon, British Columbia. I attempted my first quilt back in 1993, and haven't looked back. My fabric stash has grown, as have the number of quilts I have made, donated and given as gifts. Visit for a while and please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.